EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — The Edmonton Oilers signed Jake Virtanen to a professional tryout agreement on Monday, two months after the former Vancouver forward was found not guilty of sexual assault.
Virtanen was charged in January in connection with an incident in a downtown Vancouver hotel room in September 2017. He was with the Canucks when the allegations surfaced in May 2021 and the team placed him on leave and bought out his contract the following month. He was found not guilty in July.
Virtanen, 26, appeared in 36 games for Spartak Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League last season, scoring nine goals and adding seven assists. Selected by the Canucks sixth overall in the 2014 NHL draft, Virtanen has 55 goals, 45 assists and 219 penalty minutes over six NHL seasons.
The Oilers also announced that 34-year-old defenseman Jason Demers had signed a PTO with the team. Demers, of Laval, Quebec, played five games in the KHL last season and had two assists in five games for Canada at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
Demers was selected by San José in the seventh round of the 2008 draft. He has 45 goals, 169 assists and 407 penalty minutes over 699 games with San José, Dallas, Florida and Arizona. He had four assists in 41 games for the Coyotes in 2020-21.
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